Research & Reports
Regarding Rate Sheets – And Other Recent VA Product Moves
We are expecting variable annuity filing activity will be picking up soon as we are entering the May prospectus season, however we are unsure whether insurers will introduce many new product ideas as they are...
Free Riffing – On Current Themes in the Variable Annuity Industry
Product filing activity around the variable annuity business has been kind of slow in our opinion, at least compared to past years, so in this report we’ll do some “riffing” – offering up impromptu thoughts...
New Coverage: Summaries of New VA Contracts Filed with the SEC in 2016
This table commences our coverage of new variable annuity contracts filed with the SEC so far in 2016…
Jackson National Files New Variable Annuity for Fee-Based Advisors
This week we’ll discuss a new variable annuity filed by Jackson National designed to be sold through fee-based advisors, which may be an indication that new Department of Labor fiduciary rules – set to come...
An Update on Variable Insurance Managed-Volatility Portfolios
In this brief commentary we’ll touch on trends in managed-volatility portfolios, drawing on year-end 2015 data we gathered from SEC filings, which show how assets under management in this subset of the variable fund universe...
Update: Variable Insurance Volatility-Managed Portfolios
This updated spreadsheet of variable insurance volatility-managed portfolios contains data through the end of 2015. By our count there were 211 such portfolios in operation at quarter end, containing more than $242 billion in assets....
Reviewing Variable Insurance Fund Filings from February, 2016
Each year February is a month when a large number of new variable insurance funds get filed with the SEC in preparation for their eventual addition to contracts during the May prospectus update season. This...
Casual Thoughts on the Variable Annuity Business as Q1 Winds Down
This will be a very brief commentary containing random thoughts on the variable annuity scene, as it looks to us at this point in the year. The brevity of this report is mostly due to...
Puzzling Out Meanings Within Recent VA Contract and Rider Filings
In this commentary we’ll discuss some variable annuity product filings with the SEC from recent weeks that we found interesting, some of which, we’ll admit, have elements we are not yet totally clear on…